More and more, cybercriminals target tax professionals looking to access taxpayer data. These criminals use the information to file fake tax returns. Many tax pros think it can’t happen to them, but it can – and it does. The IRS reminds all tax preparers they have a responsibility to protect and secure sensitive data.

To prevent data theft, the IRS partnered with state tax agencies and members of the tax industry to create the Security Summit. Through this partnership, they are fighting identity theft. While they make progress, criminals need more data to file fraudulent returns. This in turn makes tax professionals, payroll professionals, and employers targets of identity thieves.

Security Summit partners remind tax professionals to take all possible steps to secure data. They can:

Remember that all of the web page addresses for the official IRS website, IRS.gov, begin with http://www.irs.gov. Don' t be confused or misled by Internet sites that end in .com, .net, .org or other designations instead of .gov. The address of the official IRS governmental Web site is http://www.irs.gov/.

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